Obama Spurns NASCAR

Do not be deceived, he did nothing of the sort. What actually happened paints a significantly different picture.

An outfit called BAM Racing has been without a commercial sponsor since the beginning of this season, and has been sitting out most of the NASCAR Sprint Cup races. They have a car, driver and enough money to put fuel in the car but they do not have enough money to field a pit crew for the race, which NASCAR requires. So they made an offer to Obama’s campaign to be a sponsor to their car for the Pocono race later this year, which would involve the Obama campaign giving them a lot of money in return for which BAM Racing would put “Obama for President” on the side of the car.

They made the same offer to the McCain campaign, and to several lower level politicians, and then spread the rumor that Obama had accepted. I’m guessing at the latter, but sports writers were all over the idea that Obama was on board, and the rumor had to come from somewhere.

The owners of BAM Racing are staunch Republicans and have donated heavily to that party and its members for years. The driver of the car is also a staunch Republican, has spoken favorably of a number of members of that party for several years and is known to be a McCain supporter. A couple of other pertinent facts are that BAM Racing seldom has even finished a NASCAR race, let alone won one and that the driver, Ken Schrader is a very nice guy and at one time was an outstanding driver, but he is about the same age as John McCain and is about as effective behind the wheel of a racecar as McCain is at a teleprompter.

NASCAR is generally a hotbed of Republicanism anyway, so the side of any racecar is probably not the best venue for Obama’s advertising dollar but, given that it has a proclivity for running about a third of the race at the rear of the field and then heading for the garage, this car would seem to be a particularly poor choice. Obama’s campaign followed the lead of dozens of knowledgeable automotive sponsors and kept their name off of the quarter panel of BAM Racing’s car.

My guess is that BAM Racing spread Obama’s name as the rumored sponsor because they were pretty sure that no one would take them up on the offer and they didn’t want to embarrass any of their favored candidates. Actually, making it appear that Obama was spurning the NASCAR crowd may have been… Nah.

Speaking of the IRL,

(Which I wasn't, but...) I watched the IRL race at Nashville last night, and Danica Patrick has got to be the least charming person I have ever seen on television. According to her all of the rest of the drivers are talentless ill-mannered boors who are conspiring to deny her the opportunity to showcase the skill which she and she alone possesses. Gack.